I made this really great repellent from lemon slices and sprigs of rosemary. It worked better than any commercial product i tried, and after the seizures from the Advantix, i was really leery of chemical stuff.

Place lemon slices and rosemary in a long, glass Pyrex tray. Cover with water and let sit overnight. In the morning, pour the liquid only into an empty spray bottle. Store unused spray in the refrigerator to keep it fresh, and use within two weeks.

To also repel ticks, add 30 drops of rose geranium oil to two tablespoon of vodka, and then add that mixture into the lemon-rosemary mixture.

Mix all ingredients together, then add to one cup of water and blend in a spray bottle. (If you can’t find black walnut hulls tincture, then add oils to 2 tablespoons of vodka. You must use alcohol to mix the oils in with the water.)

I posted this on the dotcorny list, thought i had here too. My previous setter had flea issues all the time, and i used advantage religiously, and when i got Cassie, i did the same. Then when i started tracking, i kept hearing about deer ticks, so i started using Advantix. First dose fine, the second month, after 4-5 days, i woke up to Cassie flipping out, i was groggy, didn't realize at first she was having seizures, panicked that she had eaten something poisonous and was dying. Once she calmed down, I called a friend who calmed me down, then i called my mom (who reminded me of something - see below) and before the vet office opened i started doing some research online, apparently Advantix has caused seizures in dogs before - the vet office kind of pooh-poohed it at first, b/c they said it would have shown up sooner - like 2-3 days. Later they said she might be sensitive to it. I have stopped using all chemical flea meds.

Here is what my mom reminded me of - I went through this with my first Irish when i was a kid. He also had a 'flea allergy' (I liken that to me saying I have a mosquito allergy - they bite me, I react ) but my parents got some Proban, and we applied the liquid between his shoulder blades every month. He was about 5 at the time, and he started having seizures - not sure how long between starting the meds and the seizures beginning, but we didn't make the connection until maybe 4 years later, when we got a puppy, who also developed flea allergies, and we also used Proban on him, and HE developed seizures. Now my parents could believe one dog, esp in a breed that was kind of inbred by that point (the height of their popularity - although he was otherwise completely healthy) but not in the new dog, so after some investigating they stopped the Proban and the seizures disappeared.

Cassie has not had another seizure. I rest my point.

We also had a bunny that was infested with fleas. She was the only one that ever had them, we used Advantage on her all the time and it never made a difference. (We bathed her, we bombed her cage - outside of course - we bombed my son's room, we tried every flea spray under the sun, we used diatomaceous earth, nothing ever worked.) She has since passed away, and so have most of our household flea problems. I don't think Advantage works as well as it is touted to, and when i think of all the money on spent on that crap over the years, i am sick. (Because we not only had to treat one bunny, and the dog, we had to treat the other 3 bunnies, and the cat - 6 pets x 12 months x $15 (roughly) = $1080 a year)

mmm, I've actually seen fleas dying on an animal that had advantage applied, when I worked at the clinic we used to treat patients on Emerg. that had really bad flea infestations.

I know for my own dog, it was better then not treating with a flea med, and better then the cedar chips remedy that I tried...

As you mentioned, everyone does react to flea bites, but some have a much more severe reaction - that would be a flea bite allergy.

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

Thank you, SC, for the lemon and rosemary recipe. I'm going to try it. We don't use many of the essential oil recipes because so many essential oils are toxic to cats and we have a "cat like beast". I found a bug repellent recipe that uses garlic, vinegar, and water that I want to try too. Right now, we use Neem Oil products on the dogs to keep the fleas, mosquitoes, etc. away. Neem oil is safe for cats too. I LOVE Neem Oil for it's benefits. It's like a wonder drug, but don't care much for the smell of it.